What a quirky draw. What are the odds of the two teams who reached last year’s final being paired up in the quarter-finals of the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League? How about the two weakest teams remaining playing each other, or one side of the bracket stacked with three of the four favorites to win the tournament? Well, we have all of the above this year folks.
Liverpool will play Real Madrid and Porto faces Chelsea with the winners playing each other in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Bayern Munich are paired with PSG and Manchester City play Dortmund, and the winners of these deathly match-ups play each other in the other semifinal. Could it be a more lopsided draw?
If the pundits have it right, for Man City to win the competition, the Cityzens would have to beat Dortmund, a doable task, but then likely face Bayern or PSG in the semifinals before most likely playing Liverpool in the final. Let’s break the pairings down.
Liverpool and Real Madrid are pretty evenly matched, or they will be once Madrid’s walking wounded recoup. But, with the coaching and health edge on The Reds side, it would take a gargantuan performance by the Merengues to progress, so Jurgen Klopp should be moving on.
Man City is the top co-favorite with Bayern and should take care of wunderkind Erling Haaland, and company. But, Dortmund has been surprising this year so the real question here is will we be in for a historic upset? I think Pep Guardiola won’t allow that to happen and despite his opponent’s best efforts City move on.
Chelsea and Porto are evenly matched, but Thomas Tuchel seems to be pulling most of the right strings with a consistency he lacked in his previous job save his performance last year in this tourney. So, with a new team whose mindset is mostly that they are lucky to be here and thus have nothing to fear in a subsequent loss, and a Porto who is still mired in their thrill-ride to have overcome a sorry Juventus, it is The Blues who have the inside track. Porto, despite a commendable season, seem just shy of being ready for prime time, so the nudge would seem to go Chelsea’s way.
Now comes the tourney’s big-boys battle, and this only if Neymar is healthy enough to contribute at his level. Without the talismanic Brazilian superstar, PSG is tough but not tough enough to beat Bayern. The Parisians should have won last year, though, and this time, if Ney is back and doing his part, PSG wins over Bayern.
So now, given this year’s incredible draw, we would have Man City playing PSG and Liverpool playing Chelsea. I believe the British fest will prove Tuchel’s last stand as Liverpool will have grown tougher throughout the tourney. And then, in the match-up of the tourney either Man City is clicking on all cylinders to take the edge going in or PSG is flying high from their win over Robert Lewandowski and company and they are in the driver’s seat. The deciding factor, though, will be the Kylian Mbappe-Neymar association. If Bayern is allowed to foul either star out of the tourney in their match-up then Man City will have an easy time of it. But if the two aces are intact come match day, for me, it is PSG moving on.
PSG vs Liverpool, assuming both are at full strength, will be a fun match to watch, but if Mbappe and Neymar are still standing it will be a one-sided affair. PSG will convincingly become the next Champions League cup holders.
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